Lately

I just don't stay home. I can't remember the last weekend I was home. Ever. Seriously. I've had my new car for a month and a half now, and it's already rolled 3500 miles with me. Poor thing needs an oil change. Anyhow, that is my excuse for not blogging, for not crafting, for not giving a crap all around. I have tons of things I'd love to be doing, I have a million ideas I'd love to execute... but all in all, I'm pooped! I'd share pics of where we've been and what we've been doing...but my camera fell victim to the water. Yeah I'm a little bitter about that.

Things I have done:

I jazzed up a vintage suitcase for all my travels, no pics to share.

I've been working (already) on Neely's birthday party. Sept. 25th, save the date.

Worrying about buying her school clothes...not actually shopping - did I mention I'm too pooped to battle the targets and outlet malls?!

Made several trips west, several trips northeast, lots and lots of eating out.

Work.

Suffer mosquito bites, and sweat from all the heat.

Swim, attempt to get a tan. I don't fully understand why I have to be super white girl?!

Reading, and my husband even paid my library fine so I can read more. By the way, Kindle is now a lower price...just saying if anyone is dying to get me an awesome gift.

Feel terrible from all the food I've been eating.

So that pretty much sums it up for me, 'cause I'm too tired to finish this post!

Karters Bows of Faith

I'm going to make this one quick, since it's my lunch break...but there are some great people I went to school with, who have a beautiful baby girl, Karter. Well Karter has a story...and you can read about it at her mommy's blog here.
Karter spends a lot of her time at Texas Children's Dallas, wearing a lot of tubes. Well her amazing mommy feels like when Karter wears a bow she looks more like a sweet baby rather than a tube covered sick baby. And she's RIGHT!
So in Honor of Karter she has started a little charity. Bows for girls and Bennies for boys. So crafty people, help them out! Here is a copy of her post from her blog: Karter's Bow of Faith

Okay ladies listen up! I am starting up a collection in HONOR of Karter for the little girls here at Children’s Medical Center. Upon walking into Karter’s room yesterday all I could see were machines, tubes, and lines hooked up to my precious angel. However, last night she was given another bow to put onto one of her wires….This changed everything!!! You would not even imagine the difference seeing a bow made on my little girl. Instead of seeing the wires and tubes I just saw a sleeping beauty. The bow made all the difference in the world to me and made me realize that she is still my baby girl!
So with this discovery I have decided to start up a collection in Honor of Karter called Karter’s Bow of Faith. I am asking for all donation of bows of any size, shape, and color! These bows will be given to the girls at Children’s Medical Center. You can mail them to me or we will pick them up. I will be attaching a little prayer to each bow and will even attach your name if you would like. Please help me help other families see their sleeping beauties amidst all of their medical problems. I know that by receiving these bows we will be lighting up the life of lots of little girls. Please pass the word and contact me with any questions here on our blog or on Facebook!
Thank you so much for your time and consideration! With your help I know Karter’s Bow of Faith will be a great success!
Love,
Tara McHam
P.S. We will have a P.O. Box for you to send all bows to! Thanks!

How can you not pull out the ribbon and yarn and get to crafting for those sweet babies?! Please visit her blog and help her out, and above all pray for Karter and her family.

Accountability

is something that has been heavy on my mind lately. As I grow I realize more and more that more of our problems in life and in our relationships stem from a lack of accountability. Be it stubbornness, or just the never ending cycle of it's always someone else's fault that "my life turned out this way", "so and so did this to me", or "my job this and that". Well I hate to go all Dr. Phil on ya, but you really do teach people how to treat you. Lately I have noticed more and more people who whine all the time, and take no responsibility for their actions and the unwanted reactions that they get, well those people just get on my nerves! I guess I must say my "Give a darn is busted" when it comes to them. I'll be the first to admit I can get in a funk just as quickly as the next person, and the easiest thing to do at that time is blame everyone else for the way my life is not in sync. But lets face it, grow a pair, and own up to what you did or didn't do that got you in that place. Make some changes, stop pointing the fingers and grow up. I also find that the people that lack accountability are also the fastest to lie to defer that accountability from themselves. Is that how you want to be perceived? As a lying cry baby that can't take responsibility? I know I don't! And I know I want to keep reminding myself to admit my failures, my short comings, and my wrong doings to people and most importantly model that for my child and the people around me. I have a feeling that it'll yield a happier lifestyle for me in the long run, and it just might you too. Here is a list of quotes about accountability:
"Some favorite expressions of small children: "It's not my fault... They made me do it... I forgot." Some favorite expressions of adults: "It's not my job... No one told me... It couldn't be helped." True freedom begins and ends with personal accountability."

- Dan Zadra
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant."

- Robert Louis Stevenson
"Everyone sooner or later sits down to a banquet of consequences."

- Robert Louis Stevenson
"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible."

- George Burns
"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes real happiness. It is not obtained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."

- Helen Keller
"You don't choose the day you enter the world and you don't chose the day you leave. It's what you do in between that makes all the difference."

- Anita Septimus
"Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done."

- Stowe
"Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should."

- Psalm 990: 12 TLB